Does this mean, by your description, that the corner of rumpus is the east facing part of home. Can you please place north south east west on your plans, just to clarify. What is the size/shape of your block of land. Are there any views? If the measurements are correct, there is enough room in your family room (great room), for dining as well. It appears that you have three study areas. Is this correct? Always better to have the laundry on the outside wall for ventilation. North is best for alfresco, usually with no roofing or able to retract roofing to let the lower northern sun in, in winter.

going by description the following should be correct

Are you determined to do this yourself or are you open to seeking professional advice?

An experienced design professional will take your brief for morning sun exposure in context with your overarching space requirements and other objectives to produce a balanced design solution for you.

The right professional will use 3D modelling software to explore how the sun is interacting with the building throughout the year. The sun rises and sets at a slightly different position every day as the seasons progress. The latitude of the site also affects the design. A good solution for Tasmania might not be so good in Queensland for example. An off the shelf plan is therefore a bit of a lucky dip.

Care needs to be taken with east and west orientations to avoid excessive heat gain in summer. Fine tuning for optimal performance will be a complex task if you don't have access to the right tools and experience.

Houston, you may need to recruit an expert to assist with mission control? Happy to talk if you want to contact me.

Thanks siriuskey for adding the aspects, that's exactly right.

Hi dreamer, thanks for your interest and questions. We don't yet have a block. The idea (dream really) is to design what would be the ideal house for our circumstances, and then find a block to suit. The house is a bit on the too-large side right now. I thought once I had a good idea where everything went, I would try to trim it down a bit. Regarding a view, it's definitely very high on the wish list. For this house north-east would probably be the ideal outlook? I would say there is one study, by the front entrance, and a study nook in the hall coming off the south-east bedrooms. On the other side of the study nook wall, between the garage and front entrance, is currently a empty space which has lots of options. One idea I've been thinking about would be to use this space as a workshop with lots of storage. Perhaps the laundry could sit between the ensuite and kitchen? Only problem is that it looks a bit silly with the master bedroom sticking out so far. I might try and make this more compact somehow, but you get the idea.

I like the idea of a roof over the alfresco, so perhaps a pitched roof could help balance winter sun and summer shade? This pitch could carry through into the great room which could look really great.

Thanks John for the offer of support. I'm really enjoying this process and half the fun has been looking through other plans for rooms to use. That said, I'll note your offer for later.

using your basic ideas this variation is based on simple rectangles that can be rotated towards any views and sun angles but i suggest that final details, like the extra angles, should relate to the location, climate and budget, keeping in mind that an L shaped building like this will need a space at least 30m x 30m plus appropriate setbacks and orientation

I certainly understand what you mean by " I'm really enjoying this process and half the fun has been looking through other plans for rooms to use." Designing is great fun.

You also said, " We don't yet have a block. The idea (dream really) is to design what would be the ideal house for our circumstances, and then find a block to suit." It is great that you are bolstering your dreams by collecting ideas and assembling possible layouts. But when you say you intend to find a block to suit your dream I think you may have the cart before the horse. The site context, orientation, slope, views/outlook, micro-climate, vegetation, access and services all inform the building design. You can fit the house to the block much more easily than fitting the block to the house.

By all means continue your process of exploring possibilities and collecting ideas, but please just treat it as an exercise in better understanding your dream.

In college we were told that the first design concept we came up with should be put in the drawer and not looked at until a second, third or more concepts had followed. Only then were we to take out the first concept and review it. If it trumped the later efforts, then great, we knew we had the best solution. In my experience the first concept never trumped later efforts.

Try all living on north side. All bedrooms on south. Laundry on west as that is the hottest space and least used room in afternoon. Bedrooms connected by a hallway enclosing bedroom doors and bathroom from living. Your kitchen would be cheaper and more functional if walls at right angles. You need to factor in linen cupboards and other storage needs. Then make sure you do some furniture layouts to check room sizes.
You will need a very wide block for your layout.

You may also want to focus on individual rooms rather than the whole house. What is your ideal master, kitchen living etc.

As Kate says, orientate the home to the north. It's the best source by far. One you get to NW our NE it's difficult to shade in summer.

In you example it looks like the master bed faces NW, yuck!

Start with a rectangular plan, long sides for to the N & S, for abundant winter sun. Short sides to the E & W, to minimise summer sun. E aspect is a nice aspect for the kitchen.

I'm very confused by this desire to have a plan first without a block selected. I'd find a block which allows good Northerly access towards rear and think about where driveway is allowed. There are a myriad of potential plans once you have that sorted (assuming block is level).

We’ve tried designing a plan before the site - not bad plan either (though a little architect’s magic went a long way to improving it). Spent months thinking about it - what we needed and wanted etc. - only to discover that the only sites we could find even close-ish to our desired area that we could afford were badly sloping, triangular and faced south. Wiped out everything back to the drawing board - and we spent so long trying to make it work we ended up having to buy a pre-built property instead.

Plan + site = :-O
Site + plan = :-)
Site + plan + architectural fairy dust = :-D

Thanks swizzles95, it's really helpful to hear others experiences. Would you consider your original approach again if you we're planning on building your initial design on a property of a couple of acres (a scenario potentially alleviating orientation and block size/angle restrictions)?

Regardless of size, whether it's an acreage allotment or a tight site, building design must respond to and best be directly derived from the site and context. Different sites will have different issues. Yes, smaller sites will have more constraint on the dimensions. But the limits don't necessarily get easier or minimised on acreages. Rather, they will have different natured restrictions and limits, possibly to do with bushfire and/or vegetation controls. Acreages also more likely to have views and prevailing weather to respond to, as well as generally higher construction costs and general infrastructure establishment involved.

Establish the "where" first, and only then can you begin to work through the "what" it will be. Of course, before all of that, you best have a good idea about "how much" you can afford, in terms of both $$$ and timeframe

Enjoy the process! PD :)

Hey Houston334 waving hand emoji No, not really - there are still too many factors that can dramatically change the character and cost of the design that will always be tied to the landscape. E.g.:

• Neighbours: are they visible? Nosy? Loud? Exist at all?
• View: good? Bad? Great in one direction but only from an upper storey?
• Orientation: Even on a dead flat acreage lots of factors affect this, whether to build a courtyard house to hide from the road/neighbours or really wide eaves to protect from beating sun — and any slope at all instantly complicates things
• Groundworks: Massive part of any cost, but goes up exponentially if the site is hard (but can make for spectacular architecture if it responds well - Frank Lloyd Wright’s Fallingwaters is my favourite example)
• Local landscape: desert? Woodland? Farmland? Good soil here but not there? (This (should) impact both aesthetic and cost factors)
• etc.

... but most of all, you may find the perfect site for location, view, size and cost only to discover that you have to go back to the drawing board ‘cos your plan just don’t fit.

Don’t get me wrong, I LOVE playing around with designs: just don’t get too attached to them. Think of them as brainstorming sessions to find out what kind of requirements you have and styles you like, not as a fait accompli.

Have fun!